double destruction

Sadly the relaxation gained at the beach game to a grinding halt upon returning home.  In the midst of all the previous damage, our basement had flooded a bit in a previous storm.....

Ben and I were in Breck with Molly and Brandon and I saw the storm on radar and called Ryan to turn the sprinklers off.  When he walked to the basement to do that, he noticed the water.  Thanks to he and his dad, we got the mess mitigated quickly and dried out fast too.  MeeMee came to the rescue with some giant fans and we were thankful to have recovered.

The second flood was much worse in terms of rainfall and Ryan was out of town for work while I was at the beach.  Jim had stopped by to see if we had water and we knew as we landed that we were going home to quite a mess.  The ground was just so saturated from our very wet Spring that even the new builds around us suffered flooding.  This time the carpet had already been wet for 24 hours + so we landed at 6 pm, drove out to MeeMee's to pick up Ben and got started cutting and ripping carpet out about 9 pm.  We decided to head to bed about 1 and started back in the next day.  I called Ryan to come home from work when I noticed the desk he built in the office was sucking water up the legs.  We got back to work and by sometime VERY late Saturday (about 52 hours later) we had removed all the carpet and pad from the basement.

We were motivated to finish as we were slated to leave for Breck Sunday afternoon. Just as we were leaving, we discovered the computer hard drive had crashed.  A neighbor stepped in and helped with a back-up from time machine so we could get on the road, but we realized later that the drive was kaput.  (You'll never know reading the blog years from now, but this crash meant my already behind-blogging was almost 3 months behind when I got back to it.)

I drove separately to Breck as Ben and I planned to stay longer and at one point while needing to move from the very crowded check-in parking, my car wouldn't start.  It turned out to be some combination of lights on that I discovered when retrieving Luke, and thankfully it started.  To say I was at my boiling point at that moment would have been an understatement and I considered hauling Ben and Luke to a nearby grassy area and bawling or screaming or having a very loud conversation with the universe.  Lots of deep breaths helped me keep my composure and I stopped Ryan from banging on the "just closed" auto parts store door in a nearby town.  You can bet I opened a beer FIRST THING upon entering our room. :)

SO MANY bags of wet carpet and pad.  Thankfully large-item-pickup was only a week away.

You can see what was the floor of the coal storage 80 + years ago.  Leveling it for a more flood-friendly floor may prove difficult.

Senoritas playa vacacion tres

the ferry ride over and a little Texas pride

There was nothing better to take the sting out of Tante's departure, than a third annual beach vacation on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas.  Angela's in-laws will be retiring and moving here full-time in the next few years, so I'm soaking it up while we still can. :)  We have such a great system down and knowing exactly what to expect means I think I actually start relaxing before I even arrive.

This year Angela's sister, Nelda, joined us.  I was thrilled to finally meet her and she was a great addition to our trip.  We had fun talking girl-talk, kid-talk, husband-talk and sitting in silence reading on the beach.  There was another unfortunate addition this year in the form of mosquitos.  There is no way to aptly express just how terrible they were.  Upon arrival they immediately swarmed the car and were present by the millions unless we were at the beach.  We worked out a decent system for getting to the beach but missed the usual afternoon deck time.  The area had had lots of flooding and there was standing water in lots of places it had never been before.  Overall, the trip was fun and relaxing and as always, too short.  I do hope the drought returns before next year....
...or maybe a bat infestation. ;)

sister love

the screen porch was still a fabulous retreat

sunset at dinner

6 giant bites in just one run in from the beach

 

I wore my big hat every minute on the beach this year and sent this to Tante to assure her I was avoiding "lizard neck.'

 

Doesn't everyone bundle up to walk to the car when it's 90 degrees??

Thank you, Ang and Nelda, for another fantastic and relaxing trip!!

A broad, abroad

Well, as I stated in our picture post, Molly made her dreams come true and got offered a job with Davita in Singapore.  While I knew something like this would come sooner or later, it all came together very quickly and they asked her to move within a month from the first discussions.

Once she accepted, she set to work to do all her favorite things one last time and see lots of people before she left.  We had fun joining her on lots of those missions, and those 3 weeks were non-stop busy.  It also made the first month of Summer absolutely fly by.

Get ready for the fun.......

Molly always claims I "never drink with her," so I lead an honest effort a few times before she left.

Tante and Brandon helped Ben install the glow-in-the-dark stars Tante had gotten him for Christmas.

Brunch and mani-pedi's with MeeMee one last time.

We headed to Breck and Grand Lodge for a night.  

We added a hike to Rainbow Lake near Frisco to this adventure.

One of my most favorite pictures ever taken at yet another goodbye brunch.

Although it was one of Molly's favorites growing up, I had never been to Water World.  It was a first for Ben as well and the T-rex ride was definitely his favorite.  His was more fearless than me and I know this will be a favorite as he grows up and is tall enough for all the rides.

We had to DRAG Tante and Ben out of the wave pool when it was time to go.

Molly stopped by for a final good-bye as I was heading to the beach and she would leave while I was gone.  We were naturally color-coordinated.  We had also both secretly asked for pictures from the photographer and giggled as we exchanged them.  In true big-sister fashion, I had asked a bit earlier but I was so proud of my sneaky lil-sis and our continued brain sharing.

Tante leaving us is devastating but I'm so proud of her for knowing herself and following her dreams.  I did the same thing on a much smaller scale a little younger than her and I really think you have to go away from all that's familiar at least once in life to really know where you belong and what you want from this beautiful life.  I know she will own her new job in no time and I hope she explores her new corner of the world with reckless abandon.

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
― Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach

You can follow along with Tante's latest adventure on her new blog, 

http://milehighmollusk.blogspot.com/ 

Father's days

This year, like many, saw Ryan's birthday and Father's Day on back-to-back days.  Thanks to a leap year, it appears we get to enjoy this non-stop party again next year. ;)

This year Molly helped in the planning and mentioned the Westword music festival months in advance of Ryan's birthday.  Brandon and MeeMee joined us and it was lots of fun.  Some of the music was great and we had fun searching for bands we might like as there were lots of bars and a big outdoor stage all hosting bands in a short radius.  

Ben and I made breakfast for Ryan and had him open gifts before we dropped 

Ben off for the afternoon.

bros

a little 38 creeping into that beard ;)

this rooftop featured a rap DJ that Ryan chose

 
Pat and Jim had watched Ben for the festival so we joined them for swimming and a late lunch the next day, Father's Day.

 

3 amazing boys

I'm pretty sure this was a great way to end the weekend.

timely treasures

At Tante's pushing and request, we began the search in the early Spring for a family photographer.  We quickly found one an acquaintance had used and things loosely scheduled for June.  In the months that followed, said photographer decided to stop doing sessions as they are busy adopting from Ghana and she is changing careers.  So, the search continued and just we felt time crunching, we heard back from Kristin that she had been offered another Ghana mission trip and would be doing a few family shoots to fund it.  Whoo hooo! We were thrilled and scheduled right away.  

Despite planning for months, I made the HUGE mistake of not having Ben try his photo clothes on until a couple days before the shoot.  Well, my big guy had outgrown everything!! So, I rushed and bought and returned and rushed for a couple days and even bought the same shorts he already has in a different color that fit perfectly and THEY didn't fit.  Anyway, I learned my lesson and also learned I need clothes with a waist for pictures-or at least a little more shape.  Everything looked so great laid out on the bed but next time I'll take actual test shots in our actual clothes at least a week before. :) Lessons learned.

Kristin was fun and great to work with and even got a few action shots on the basketball court per my request.  We didn't know when we scheduled them, but knew when we were shooting that they'd be extra special as Tante wouldn't be a Denverite much longer......


This is a good sampling of each pose and my favorites.  I apologize for so many pics in one post.

My favorite "solo" Ben

another fave

Yep

Oh be still my heart!

 

and these

and the best for last.